Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican - Part III Epilogue

February 2, 1634

The Apparition of
Our Lady of Good Fortune,
Quito, Ecuador (1634)

Among the numerous manifestations of Our Lady’s predilection for the land of Ecuador (South America), we find her apparitions to Mother Mary Anne of Jesus in 1634. Her image is still venerated today in the convent of her Immaculate Conception at Quito. This apparition is approved by the Church. The prophecy is striking. Archbishop Lefebvre himself cited this apparition in his sermon delivered the day of the episcopal consecrations (June 30, 1988). That sermon appears starting on p.116 of this book.

On February 2, 1634, Mother Mary Anne of Jesus Torres was praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament when suddenly the sanctuary lamp burning in front of the altar went out. While she was trying to re-light it, a supernatural light filled the church. In the light, the Mother of God appeared to her and said:

Beloved daughter of my heart, I am Our Lady of Good Fortune, your Mother and Protectress, carrying my Most Holy Son on my left arm and holding the scepter in my right hand. I have come to tell you some good news: in ten months and ten days you will close your eyes to the earthly light of this world in order to open them to the brightness of light everlasting.

Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which in religious houses destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of religious virtues and fraternal charity, and that child-like simplicity which makes souls so dear to my Divine Son and to me, their Mother.

Then Our Lady of Good Fortune began to speak of the Order of the Immaculate Conception and, in particular, of the convent of the Conception in Quito:

This house will be attacked with a fury out of hell to destroy and annihilate it; but Divine Providence and I will be watching over it to preserve it, by favoring the virtues practiced by the nuns in this house....Know also, my beloved daughter, that my motherly love will watch over the convents of the Order of my Immaculate Conception, because this Order will give me great glory through all the daughters I shall have here. I shall take special care of the convents formed in this land by the members of this house. Often they will be on the brink of annihilation, but miraculously they will come to life again. Only one will close, in conformity with God’s will: you will know which, when you are in heaven.

The sanctuary lamp burning in front of the Prisoner of Love, which you saw go out, has many meanings...

First meaning: at the end of the 19th and for a large part of the 20th, various heresies will flourish on this earth which will have become a free republic. The precious light of the Faith will go out in souls because of the almost total moral corruption: in those times there will be great physical and moral calamities, in private and in public. The little number of souls keeping the Faith and practicing the virtues will undergo cruel and unspeakable suffering; through their long, drawn out martyrdom many of them will go to their death because of the violence of their sufferings, and those will count as martyrs who gave their lives for Church or for country. To escape from being enslaved by these heresies will call for great strength of will, constancy, courage and great trust in God, all of which are gifts from the merciful love of my Divine Son to those He will have chosen for the work of restoration. To put to the trial the faith and trust of these just souls, there will come moments when everything seems lost and paralyzed, and just then comes the happy beginning of the complete restoration.

Second meaning: My communities will be abandoned; they will be swamped in a fathomless sea of bitterness, and will seem drowned in tribulations. How many true vocations will be lost for lack of skilful and prudent direction to form them! Each mistress of novices will need to be a soul of prayer, knowing how to discern spirits.

The third meaning of the lamp’s going out is that in those times, the air will be filled with the spirit of impurity which, like a deluge of filth, will flood the streets, squares and public places. The licentiousness will be such that there will be no more virgin souls in the world.

A fourth meaning is that by having control of all the social classes, the sects will tend to penetrate with great skill into the heart of families to destroy even the children. The devil will take glory in feeding perfidiously on the heart of children. The innocence of childhood will almost disappear. Thus priestly vocations will be lost, it will be a real disaster. Priests will abandon their sacred duties and will depart from the path marked out for them by God. Then the Church will go through a dark night for lack of a prelate and father to watch over it with love, gentleness, strength and prudence, and numbers of priests will lose the spirit of God, thus placing their souls in great danger.

Pray constantly, cry out unwearyingly and weep unceasingly with bitter tears in the depths of your heart, asking Our Father in heaven, for love of the Eucharistic Heart of my most holy Son, for His Precious Blood so generously shed and for the profound bitterness and sufferings of His Passion and death, that He have pity on His ministers and that He put an end to such fatal times, by sending to His Church the prelate who will restore the spirit of His priests.

Upon this my beloved son, whom my divine Son and I love with a love of predilection, we shall heap many gifts—of humility of heart, of docility to varying inspirations, of strength to defend the rights of the Church and of a heart with which he will, like a new Christ, take possession of the mightiest of men as of the lowliest, without scorning the least fortunate amongst them. With a wholly divine gentleness he will lead consecrated souls to the service of God in religious houses without making the Lord’s yoke weigh heavy upon them. He will hold in his hand the scales of the sanctuary for everything to be done in orderly fashion for God to be glorified. This prelate and father will act as a counterweight to the lukewarmness of souls consecrated in the priesthood and in religion.

Satan will gain control of this earth through the fault of faithless men who, like a black cloud, will darken the clear sky of the republic consecrated to the Most Sacred Heart of my Divine Son. This republic, having allowed entry to all the vices, will have to undergo all sorts of chastisements: plague, famine, war, apostasy, and the loss of souls without number.

And to scatter these black clouds blocking the brilliant dawning of the freedom of the church, there will be a terrible war in which the blood of priests and of religious will flow....That night will be so horrible that wickedness will seem triumphant. Then will come my time: in astounding fashion I shall destroy Satan’s pride, casting him beneath my feet, chaining him up in the depths of hell, leaving Church and country freed at last from his cruel tyranny.

The fifth meaning of the lamp’s going out is that men possessing great wealth will look on with indifference while the Church is oppressed, virtue is persecuted, and evil triumphs. They will not use their wealth to fight evil and re-construct the Faith. The people will come to care nothing for the things of God, will absorb the spirit of evil and will let themselves be swept away by all the vices and passions. Ah, my beloved daughter, were it given you to live in those fatal times, you would die of grief at seeing everything I have told you come about. My most holy Son and I have such a great love for this earth, our property, that it is our wish as of now to apply your sacrifices and good works to the lessening of the duration of such a terrible catastrophe.